It was just like he died yesterday i remember like it just happened. The media coverage was like no other. Every single news agency was intown camp out in fron of his south beach ocean front mansion. I was 15 at the time and had no idea who he was but 10 years later his name is known world wide and i know who he is and what he represented. Below is the facts of the death of fashion designer Gianni Versace, South Beach's most famous resident.
Versace, 50, had just returned to Miami Beach -- and Cunanan had been waiting, police later determined.On July 15, Versace awoke early. Dressed in gray sweat pants and a black T-shirt, he walked two blocks south to the News Café. He ordered a cup of coffee and purchased five magazines. It was sunny, about 8:30 a.m., and few people were on the street.Versace, the man who helped bring gaudy glitz and glamour to South Beach, strolled back home.Cunanan, lurking in a park across the street, dashed toward Versace, who was fidgeting with keys to the 10-foot ornate wrought iron gate.Cunanan moved behind him, right arm outstretched. He fired one shot near Versace's ear, execution-style. He fired a second shot into the fashion mogul's cheek. Versace fell. Blood dripped down the rock steps, splattering over Versace's sunglasses and flip-flops, an image repeatedly broadcast and published the world over.Cunanan calmly walked away. In the chaos, one of Versace's friends gave chase but stopped when Cunanan pointed the .40 caliber Taurus. Cunanan vanished into one of Miami Beach's alleyways.Rescue workers arrived and tried to keep Versace alive; they didn't know his spine had been severed.A break came July 23, when Schiaffo heard a call on the police radio that caught his attention: ``Shots fired in a houseboat on 52th Street and Indian Creek.''Gary Schiaffo was the first detective at the houseboat for what would be a 12-hour siege.Schiaffo learned a caretaker, Fernando Carreira, had come to the houseboat to check on it when he discovered the locks had been opened. He pushed his way in and saw that someone had been living there. Then a shot rang out.Police decided to tear-gas the houseboat, but getting the smoke out took hours. The media was kept at bay and in the dark about the suspect's identity.The police wouldn't tell them what had happened for hours.
Schiaffo and a crime lab technician finally entered and found Cunanan dead on a bed upstairs, just 41 blocks from the Versace mansion. He had shot himself in the mouth, with the gun he used on his victims.
In closing Gianni Versace will always be known and loved in the fashion world and he has define what fashion is and what it where it will go for years on end.
Versace's murder 10 years later